Fairmont Peace Hotel Opens Today

28 July 2010

China’s most iconic hotel will once again welcome guests when the Fairmont Peace Hotel opens its doors on July 28, 2010.

In one of this year’s most eagerly anticipated openings, Jin Jiang Hotels International and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts unveil the culmination of a comprehensive restoration program following the legendary property’s closure in 2007.

The hotel, which officially opened on August 1, 1929, was widely known as the “Number One mansion in the Far East”, due to its prime location along the Bund and for its luxury, including the distinctive copper-sheathed roof 77 meters above ground, white Italian marble floors, and priceless Lalique glass artwork. The internationally acclaimed design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) worked closely with a team of leading designers, architects and historians to recreate the grandeur and majesty of the landmark property and embody the spirit of its glamorous art-deco heritage.

The newly revitalized Fairmont Peace Hotel will offer 270 deluxe guestrooms and suites with a selection of six restaurants and lounges. Included among these is the much-loved Jazz Bar, a Shanghai institution since the 1930s, signature Chinese restaurant Dragon Phoenix and The Cathay Room, offering stunning views of the Bund from its terrace on the 9th floor. The 8th floor will host the famed Peace Hall, where the property’s iconic sprung-wooden dance floor still evokes memories of old Shanghai cabarets and gala parties.

A new extension to the building will house a sky-lit swimming pool and a Willow Stream Spa. The famous ‘Nine Nations Suites’ will remain a feature while a new presidential suite will occupy the 10th floor penthouse where the hotel’s flamboyant creator and former owner, Sir Victor Sassoon, once lived.

An Anglo-Jewish business tycoon, Sir Victor Sassoon was a driving force in Shanghai’s development, pioneering construction on the marshy Bund by installing 1,600 redwood and concrete pilings as the foundation of the 11-storey hotel, the first high-rise in the city. The original hotel boasted a number of firsts in its day – a private plumbing system with water channeled in from a spring outside the city and Shanghai’s first electric elevator, an art deco cage. Guests and visitors will be able to learn about the unique historical and cultural heritage of Shanghai’s most famous building through the Peace Gallery.